C Buknoy, C Pepang at ang Sunlight

BUKNOY, PEPANG and the SUN LIGHT

when i just the heard the news today,
it seems my life, is gonna change.....
with arms wide open under the sunlight...

welcome to this place,

ill show you everything..
- creed

Kuya, kuya... sasakay ka po ba ng traysikel?nakangiting nag tanung sakin ng isang batang lalaking nasa tabing kalsada, sya si Buknoy...

( Brother,are you going to take the tricycle for a ride? a smiling boy at the streets asked me. He is buknoy )


Kuya, tirahan mo naman ako ng pancit mo... pabulong na paswit ng isang batang babae sakin habang nakikipag niig ako sa paborito kong lomi... sya si Pepang,

( brother, share me some of your noodle soup, a little girl whispered to me, while i was enjoying my intimate time with my favorite lomi soup... she is Pepang )


Buknoy and Pepang some of the little friends i met at the streets, they are street children. They are my friends though i don't usually see them.

Same as every street children, they are thin and usually dirty, most likely hungry.

I thank the Lord that i dont have a car, it is because by commuting and walking the streets, i met people and learn from them. Through it, i am reminded that life is abound by grace, both little and big ones. The streets have proven it to me.


The streets is abound by blessings;

done blessings;

destroyed blessings;

ignored blessing;

and blessings awaiting to be done...



Our street is our reflection, our society's mirror.
Our streets are filled by streetchildren, indistinct traffic signs, quarelling drivers, garbage, flood, substandard asphalt construction;
it is made dangerous by drivers who by a derange sense of sight or by reckless hunger for speed, drive as if they are the only human person in the world.

I pray that buknoy and pepang be safe...

I have met dozens more of pepangs and buknoys... and for me, they are a constant reminder, not only of the poverty and failure and struggle of our society, they are reminders that " we cant just ignore".

i have hopes for pepang and buknoy, i believe in them, i hope with them.

And every time i help them, in whatever grace extended to me by God, i believe that it will not end there... because some day,

yes someday,

at the time of their own sunlight,

they too shall be an extension of grace to others...

and as of now, i invite every one, let us be an instrument of grace to them, because someday, they too shall become purposeful individuals to the society...


I

Aspalto ( Asphalt)

ASPHALT is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits sometimes termed asphaltum- WIKIpedia


Most of our roads here are made of asphalt, being in a country near the equator, imagine asphalt roads under sun's extreme heat... It is indeed a searing painful heat...

Tsinelas (slippers), imagine life without it, and walk across the extremely hot asphalt road.




... among my hopes for an ordinary day is as simple as , let me not fail in being an instrument of purpose, if there is an opportunity to help, let me be.

Tsinelas, it is a part of my spiritual and moral life, it is a little symbol of my personal advocacy.

Whenever i see a child walking along the streets bare footed, i do my best to help by buying him/her a pair of tsinelas...

So far, i havent seen a fat kid barefooted in the streets, barefooted children are always near to being malnourished, most are thin. It is quiet logical why.

Barefooted street children, hungry, dirty, some are selling things walk on the asphalt roads at the presence of a glaring sun, literally is suffering the searing heat of the road;

and when the weather gets inconsiderate, it will suddenly rain, from heat comes rain, while other people get inside their offices or malls or any establishment or take cover inside their cars, these children especially those children who sell something remain at the streets.

I would always pray that people would have enough even for at least covering their feet...

and so I write; to call, to admonish, to symphatize, to co-exist, to act, and shout TSINELAS PO!

if we have means, 30 pesos is enough to buy a pair of slippers at a nearby store. It is just nearly as much as 1 and a half hours of dota, 2 softdrink bottles (that later kills), a pack of cigarette that cripples the body system, and a bottle of beer that that gets our tummy bloated ill-figured;

yes only as much as that...



Tsinelas... our life too is like a tsinelas,

someday we will be worn and torn by the dirt and heat of life...

at least by the time our life has gotten to that point,

we will not be measured by the dirt we have,

but be measured thru the feet and souls we have sheltered...